


If You Can't Catch a Wave

by Artistia



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, Serious is fine too, Surfer Cat, Surfer Kara, Turned into something unexpected, Was supposed to be fun and fluffy, but oh well
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-31
Updated: 2018-07-31
Packaged: 2019-06-14 00:13:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15376485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Artistia/pseuds/Artistia
Summary: For Supercat Secret Santa Christmas in July, per nicoleks promptSurfer AUNot sure how else to describe it, there's surfing, a competition, some people get catty, and Kara is adorable and relaxed while Cat is stressed out and then she gets relaxed in multiple ways.





	If You Can't Catch a Wave

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Nicoleks](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nicoleks/gifts).



> I'm not sure what happened with this story, it went sideways quickly. I was imagining something fun and then it decided to go in a more serious route but I decided to just ride it out. Plus, I've been noticing a lot of people have been thirsting for surfing stories, so alright.
> 
> Borrowed two OCs from my other story Between Dark Knights and Fallen Stars that also references surfing. 
> 
> I did some research on surfing competitions, and watched some movies, but they weren't consistent, so I made some stuff up.

**If you Can’t Catch a Wave**

 

“You getting ready for the competition on Saturday Kitty-Cat?” Cat tensed as Lois Lane’s voice came from behind where she was standing waxing her board. She clenched her hand tighter around the bar of wax in her hand, so tight that she briefly worried it would crack or shoot out of her hand due to the pressure. Cat turned and found Lois Lane, Leslie Willis and Siobhan Smythe standing behind her, near identical smirks on their faces. “You sure you’re up for it? It has been over a year since you’ve competed, that knee of yours healing up?”

“It’s fine,” Cat replied, a smirk plastered on her face. “Better than that face of yours is healing up, what did you do to it? Oh right, it’s been that way since birth?”

“You better watch it Cat, would hate if something were to happen to that knee to put you out of the season when it hasn’t even started yet,” Leslie threatened. The older blonde stared at her distastefully before turning her attention back to Lois. 

“What? Can’t fight your own battles Lane so you brought your lackeys to do it for you?”

Lois just smirked again, “I don’t need to fight any battles Cat, I’ve been watching you. You haven’t caught any waves in the weeks you’ve been back here, you think Rip Curl is going to keep sponsoring you, a surfer who can’t surf? If you can’t catch a wave Cat, stay off the ocean.” She flipped her hair and hit Cat in the face as she turned around and sauntered away, her two wannabes following behind her. 

Cat rolled her eyes and turned around to continue waxing her board, putting the three younger women out of her mind. The competition she was preparing for was part of the Championship tour, one of the qualifying events, the first one of the season, the National City Coast Pro. It was her first competition in over a year, not since she wiped out at the end of the season last year. She ended up being banged around on some rocks, tearing her rotator cuff in her left shoulder and her ACL in her right knee. What followed were two major surgeries to fix the damage and months of physical therapy to get her shoulder and knee in working order again, what she didn’t expect though was psychological strain the incident placed on her.  

Her hands started shaking as she thought about her accident and she set the wax down and gripped at the board. Cat fumbled around for her phone and pulled it out of her purse. She hit the speed dial on her phone, and nervously tapped her fingers while she waited for the person on the other side to answer.

_ “'ello?” _

Cat cracked a smile at the sound of the sleep mussed voice through the phone. “Hey, did I wake you up?”

_ “Yeah, but I need to get up again. I woke up hours ago to watch the sunrise on the water, but I came back in and took a nap.” _

“Life of an artist hmm?”

_ “It’s so difficult right?”  _ Cat went silent for a few moments, long enough to pull worry from the person on the other end of the call.  _ “Cat?” _

“I saw Lane and her cronies today,” she replied. She sank to the ground and propped herself up against the sawhorse that held her board. 

_ “What did they say?” _

Cat let out a humorless laugh, “Nothing I didn’t already know.”

_ “They’re just trying to get in your head and psyche you out Cat, you know that.” _

“They don’t need to get in my head, it’s already messed up.” Cat chuckled again. “They were right though, I haven’t caught a wave since I wiped out. I’ve been out on my board and out on the ocean, but I haven’t caught a wave. It’s almost like I’ve lost my rhythm, like my body is afraid to catch a wave.”

_ “... Come up to the shack,”  _ the other woman said after a few moments.

“Ka-”

_ “No listen, the competition isn’t until Saturday, so you have a few days. The beach up here is pretty quiet, nobody will look at you, and if they do, Kai or Dustin will take care of them.” _

“What exactly will those beach bums do?”

_ “I don’t know, Kai might decide to act like a stereotypical Hawaiian and recite something profound about feeling the ocean, and Dustin might hug someone.” _

“Your friends are nuts.”

_ “You love them.” _

“I love you,” Cat corrected. “Them… Those business partner friends of yours, well I put up with them for your sake.”

_ “Dustin will be disappointed, but he’ll probably make his sadness known to you by withholding your all-you-can-eat basket of onion rings from your cheeseburger salad.” _

“You wouldn’t dare!”

_ “I wouldn’t, no, but you know what Dustin is like, he’s very sensitive.” _

“Sensitive is one word for it.” Cat rolled her eyes at the very notion of the man being anything remotely close to sensitive. 

_ “Cat, just come up for a few days, relax a bit, de-stress.” _

“If I remember correctly, the doctor telling me to leave National City for a while to de-stress while I was doing physical therapy is exactly how we met.”

_ “Then I’m exactly what the doctor ordered! Just come up for a bit Cat, I’m worried about you.” _

“You think I can get over this block… this fear I have of catching a wave?”

_ “Well, no, but we might be able to get you through it, just for this competition to get you back to shredding.” _

“I’m still not a big fan of ‘surf lingo’ in case you were wondering.”

_ “Yes Miss Grant, so I’ll see you in a few hours?” _

The woman let out another chuckle, this one more humorous, “Yes, you’ll see me in a few hours. I love you.”

_ “I love you too Cat.” _

Cat ended the call and pushed herself back up to her feet, grabbing her purse as she rose. She started to pack up her belongings and stuck carried her board back to her jeep. “I hope our words haven’t sent you running Kitty-Cat,” Lois purred in the blonde’s ear and Cat stiffened before moving away from the younger woman. 

“You should know I never retreat from a challenge Lane,” Cat retorted, shutting the back of her jeep. 

“Aw, Kitty, don’t forget that we were pretty evenly matched before your little accident,” Lois cooed. “Unlike you, I’ve been surfing this past season, and getting better, soon everyone will see that I’m the best in the world.”

“Need I remind you Lane, that I’m not the only one who has managed to beat you in the past,” Cat retorted. “You never did manage to beat her did you?”

Lois scoffed, “Who? Kara Zorel? That girl only surfed for two seasons years ago before disappearing, who’s going to remember her?”

“But she did defeat you Lane, quite spectacularly, and she still holds records in competitions all over the world.” Cat walked around and climbed into the driver’s seat. “But don’t you worry your pretty little head over this, come Saturday, I’ll defeat you, and you won’t have to worry about the title ‘greatest surfer in the world.’” She hit the gas and her tires spun in the mixture of dirt and sand before escaping from the beach and the toxic presence of Lois Lane. 

Within half an hour, Cat was tossing her bag into her jeep and pulling away from her small house. Over an hour later, she was approaching a small town, but turned off the main highway onto a small road that ran close to the beach. The road took her to the north side of the town and onto a secluded part of the beach protect by a bluff on the one side. There was a small shack just off the beach, and Cat pulled off the road and into one of the parking spaces next to the building. 

A few other cars filled the tiny lot, but the woman paid them no mind as she hopped out of her car and sauntered into the shack. Cat rolled her eyes at the ‘Surf Sup’ sign hanging by the door and glanced around inside for her intended target, hoping not to get spotted by another. “Cat!” The woman cursed quietly to herself and turned towards the tall, broad-shouldered blond man that had called out her name. “Hōkū said you were coming up to see us, it is great to have you!” His large, long arms encircled Cat’s shoulders and he pulled the smaller woman into a hug, picking her up slightly in his exuberance. 

“Dustin,” Cat wheezed out. “Put me down, can’t breathe.”

“Sorry, sorry,” Dustin replied sheepishly as he set her back down. “I have your lunch all ready for you if you want it.” He pushed the woman towards the bar where a few other people were seated, and motioned Cat up on one of the bar stools. “Up up, there you go, now for your food.” He walked around the bar and into the kitchen, returning a few minutes later with a giant cheesy burger with a basket of onion rings. 

“That doesn’t look like a salad with a cheeseburger on it,” Cat said, popping one of the onion rings in her mouth. 

“Nah, it is, look, there’s extra lettuce on it,” Dustin replied. “That counts as a salad.”

Cat rolled her eyes but her rumbling stomach had her quickly devouring the food in front of her. “That was really good as always Dusty,” she said, finishing the last of her onion rings. “Where’s Kara?”

“Up on the bluff,” he replied, busy with some of the other people that had come into the shack for lunch. 

The blonde woman left the shack and started the trek back towards the bluff. “Why does she have to be up on the bluff?” Cat grumbled as she started up the staircase built into the side of the cliff face. “Why couldn’t she be on the beach or floating out of the ocean?”

“Because the view isn’t as amazing on the beach,” Kara called down when she heard Cat grumbling up the hill. “And I’ve seen you do 100 pull-ups, per arm, if you’re having trouble coming up some stairs, you need to work on your cardio.”

“Are you offering to help with cardio?” Cat asked when she reached the top of the bluff. She spotted her girlfriend sitting with her easel close to the edge overlooking the sea, and she walked up behind her. Wrapping her arms around Kara’s waist, Cat set her chin on the younger woman’s shoulder and breathed in her unique smell, a mixture of salt, sunshine and paint that was pure Kara. 

“I am always willing to help you with cardio Cat.” Kara grinned and turned her, pressing a kiss to her lips. “Hey babe, how was the drive up?”

“Not bad,” Cat sighed, leaning against Kara’s strong back. “Gave me time to think.” She looked at the painting that Kara was working on and became entranced by the beautiful sunset splashing across the canvas. “Kara,” she breathed out. “It’s beautiful.”

“You think?”

“I do, but it’s a little different than what you normally do,” she admitted. “It’s darker, the sea is choppier.” 

“There’s a storm brewing right here,” Kara replied, pointing to a spot in the canvas. “You can’t see it yet because I haven’t put the clouds in, but the clouds will kind of spread out from there and cover the majority of the sky, except for some of the red part here.” She pointed to the left part of the canvas. “It’s just easier to work in layers when doing a landscape or seascape painting.” She carefully cleaned her brushes in the jar of paint thinner sitting next to her before turning around to look at Cat. “Now stop distracting me, what’s on your mind Cat, did those harpies get to you?”

Cat scoffed and rolled her eyes, “Please they wish, I am Cat Grant, nobody gets under my skin, though I wouldn’t mind if a certain blue-eyed blonde got under  _ me _ …”

“Cat…”

“It’s nothing they said, not really, just more like it acknowledged what I knew already, I’m  _ afraid _ …” The word left Cat’s mouth with great reluctance. “I’m afraid to catch a wave.”

“You’re not afraid Cat, you’re not afraid of anything,” Kara said, squeezing Cat’s hands. “You’re just… stuck.”

“So eloquent.”

“I mean it,” the younger blonde continued. “You’re just kind of trapped in that place where you wiped out. Getting on a board again is part of it, but catching a wave, that’s different.” Kara packed up her painting supplies into a box, folded down her easel, and picked up her painting. “Alright, down we go, then we’re hitting the surf.”

Cat reluctantly followed after Kara back down towards the beach. She placed her stuff down in the back of the shack and quickly changed into her wetsuit before grabbing her board. “I can’t believe you still own that thing,” Cat said distastefully Kara walked out wearing her magenta and neon yellow wetsuit. 

“I think it’s fun, now come on,” Kara started tugging Cat further up to the northern side of the beach. “Kai is teaching a beginner’s class further down where the waves are easier to handle, I don’t think you want to be around a bunch of barneys and grommets.”

“Wait, I need to get my board,” Cat replied and started to turn around, but Kara’s hand on her wrist kept her from running off.

“Nope, you’re going to use Comet for a while.”

“So my first foray back into surfing and you’re going to have me tandem surfing?”

Kara shook her head, “No, we’re just going to float for a while, feel the water. I think when you wiped out, you disrupted your connection with the water, you need to spend some more time with it, just feeling it under your fingers.”

“And is this your professional opinion?”

“More like I’ve been through something similar,” Kara replied, a sad smile on her face. 

Cat looked at the younger woman curiously before following her towards the northern part of the beach, still staying far enough away from the rocks at the base of the bluff. She remembered when she first encountered the younger woman over seven years ago. The blonde was a young sixteen year old, fresh off the junior championship and in her first year on the pro circuit. Cat was instantly captivated by the carefree attitude and smiling blue eyes, but dismissed her to focus more on Lois Lane, her, to her mind, greatest rival. They were both blown out of the water for two seasons by a teenager that kept winning competition after competition, seemingly ‘reading’ the water to land the best waves. It was infuriating and insanely attractive and Cat couldn’t get enough of watching the younger woman surf. For two seasons Kara Zorel dominated the pro competitions until she abruptly retired after accumulating enough points to win her second world championship. 

It stunned everyone, Cat included, that the young woman would quit in her prime, at the height of the season, but eventually people moved on and more surfers came along. Lois and Cat returned to their rivalry, Leslie Willis from Australia started scoring well, and in the last few years, Siobhan Smythe from New Zealand has started to make a name for herself. They’re all very irritating and unspectacular and the thought of having to compete with them for another season is -”boring.”

“What?” Kara asked, looking back at Cat.

“The idea of competing against the likes of Lane, Willis, and Smythe, it’s.. It’s boring, they’re boring. They’re good surfers yes, but they’re… boring…” Cat’s voice trailed off as she thought about what she was saying. “I think you’re right, I  _ am  _ stuck.”

“I think it’s more than just that Cat, but that’s a good place to start,” Kara sniggered. She set her board on the sand and sat down, motioning Cat to sit down next to her. “Did I ever tell you why I quit competing?” She asked when they had both settled down into the sand.

Cat hummed as she sat down, pressing against Kara so there was no room left between them. “I believe I asked when I first encountered you on this beach seven months ago, but I don’t think you ever gave me a proper answer.”

“Mhm, well, I had just finished my second year, and people were clamoring around me, requesting interviews, and sponsors were wanting to talk to me, and just everything happening all at once.” Kara waved her hand around a bit before taking Cat’s and interlacing their fingers. “It was all… pretty chaotic, the amount of money I made from sponsors those two years, well it was a lot, and there was an even bigger offer on the table. I was excited of course, and grateful for the opportunity, and then still pumped from competition. But the next day…” Her voice trailed off for a minute and Cat watched as her eyes seemed to focus on a point in the horizon further than they could see. “I woke up the next day, I got my board and was going to head out on the waves when I realized that I…”

“That you what?” Cat prompted when the younger woman didn’t finish.

“Well, that I dreaded surfing, that I didn’t want to go out on the water. That was a feeling that I had never had before and it… it scared me. I realized that somewhere along the way, my dream of professional surfing turned into a job, something that I had to do, and I was just… just stuck. I didn’t want my love for surfing to become so… methodical you know? I didn’t want to have to force myself to do something I loved.”

“And that’s when you retired?”

Kara shook her head, “No, I had to talk it over with my aunt and the sponsors, and agree to a few appearances and have my picture on a Wheaties box, but they pretty much understood where I was coming from. Aunt Astra was pretty cool with it since I was supposed to be going to college anyway.”

“And that’s where you met those two numskulls.” Cat knew that part of the story well enough. Kara was attending National City University for an art degree and met Kai and Dustin in her business classes. They became friends and quickly hashed out a business plan that would benefit all three of them, and built their weird little business from the ground up. A surf shop, and restaurant right on the beach that also offered lessons in various aquatic activities as well as sponsoring a summer camp for kids to learn more about the ocean. Kara’s aunt Astra, a retired Navy admiral turned marine biologist also helped out occasionally, particularly when dealing with respecting ocean life. 

“You like them and you know it,” Kara chuckled glancing back towards the shack. She could just make out Dustin standing outside demonstrating some surfing techniques to a few people standing around him.

Cat sniffed delicately but glanced over to where Dustin was wiggling about on the sand. “I will admit they’re rather fun, and Dustin makes a really good cheeseburger, though his definition of a salad leaves much to be desired.”

“Did he try that extra lettuce thing on you?”

The older woman just rolled her eyes. “So,” she started, attempting to bring the conversation back to topic. “You stopped competing because it made you not like surfing?”

“Basically.” Kara shrugged, “I just got stuck, and I think you’re stuck too, but a different kind of stuck.”

“You don’t think I should quit competing?”

Kara snorted, “Cat, you never quit competing, remember just last Saturday, you decided to see how many times you could make me cum before I passed out.”

A pleased grin crossed Cat’s face. “I got seven out of you, a new record.”

The younger blonde stifled back a smile and reached her other hand up to caress Cat’s cheek. “You love the thrill of competition Cat, with other people, with yourself, it’s one of the things I love about you. The drudge of competition is what got me stuck, but you, you thrive on it. That’s not what’s bothering you at present, no the actual act of surfing is what’s got you terrified, and that is what we need to address.”

“I can’t compete in a surfing competition without surfing,” Cat sighed, falling back down to the sand. “Maybe I’ll just retire, live off my inheritance and spend my days with my face buried between your thighs as you paint.”

“Cat!” Kara’s face flamed a bright red and she hopped up off the ground. “As, ah, fun as that sounds, you would most likely kill me within the first month due to your… ministrations, plus I wouldn’t get any work done.”

“Well that would be a crime,” Cat sighed. “So how are we going to do this?”

Kara tugged the older woman to her feet and grabbed her board from the ground, leading Cat into the water. She pulled herself onto her board when they reached deeper water, and motioned for Cat to climb on in front of her. “We’re not surfing today,” Kara said. “So just relax, listen to the water, feel the movement, just think for a bit on why you loved surfing to begin with.”

“Hmm,” Cat hummed, enjoying the feeling of Kara plastered to her back. “You know it is difficult to think when I have you behind me and deliciously naughty things running through my mind.”

“Alright,” Kara nodded and slipped off the side of the board.

“Kara,” Cat called after her. “That isn’t what I meant!” 

“Have fun Cat! I’ll see you later!” The younger blonde lazily swam away, leaving Cat on the borrowed board out on the waves.

Cat let out an aggravated sigh as she watched her kick away. “I’m in love with a nutcase.”

 

* * *

 

“I still can’t believe you left me out there,” Cat grumbled later that night as they were curled up on Kara’s bed. The salty, sea air blew in through the open windows and the sound of waves crashing against rocks at the base of the bluff could be heard through the stillness of the night. Kara’s house was situated on the bluff north of the the surf shop business, with a spectacular view of the ocean. It was the same house her father built for her mother, and the same house she was raised in by her aunt after her parents died. Astra gifted the house to her when she graduated college, and Astra moved further north towards Monterey Bay to work at the aquarium and research center.

“You had fun though didn’t you?” Kara retorted. “Don’t think I didn’t see you just lying on it and drifting with the water.”

Cat sniffed and just buried her face into blonde hair, enjoying the feeling of Kara’s bare skin against her own. It was an intoxicating feeling, warm sun-kissed skin pressed against her own; it was a feeling Cat didn’t think she would ever tire of, and she secretly hoped they never wore clothes when in bed together ever again. Kara was all lean muscle but soft in the right places, especially the places that Cat currently had her hands. She had often overheard men discussing if they were ‘ass men’ or ‘breast men,’ and Cat was of the opinion that she didn’t have to choose one, both were equally enjoyable, especially if since her partner was one Kara Zorel. 

“Feeling a little handsy tonight?” Kara murmured, her voice sleepy but tinged with amusement as she felt Cat’s hands groping her ass and breasts. 

“I don’t know what you mean,” Cat replied, her voice nonchalant but her hands betrayed her. One shifted down to fully cup a rounded, toned ass while the other playfully teased and pinched one nipple then the other. 

“R-really?” The younger blonde said, a moan interrupting her words. 

“Yes, I’m not sure what you mean.” This was one of her favorite games, when Kara was close to sleep, she could tease, caress,  _ fondle  _ Kara as much as she wanted without the younger woman feeling that she needed to reciprocate. Kara was an attentive lover, giving, sh always felt that she needed to return the pleasure she had been giving immediately after receiving. Cat preferred to start her morning with Kara’s face buried between her thighs, and end her day with her hands playing with a pair of magnificent breasts and gliding between wet heat. 

The hand on Kara’s ass drifted around to the front to leisurely stroke through wet folds, avoiding more sensitive locations in favor of trying to make Kara come from stimulation on her breasts alone. Pressing small lingering kisses to Kara’s lips, Cat traveled south, kissing and sucking her way down Kara’s neck, leaving a rather pronounced mark on her pulse point, one that would no doubt irritate the younger woman the next day. The moans she managed to pull from the woman beneath her just spurned Cat on, and she left marks all over her chest before her lips found their prize. 

Her tongue slipped out to flick at the pert nipple in front of her and Kara’s head flew back against her pillow, a low groan escaping her lips. “I don’t think I’ll ever get over how you taste,” Cat murmured, her tongue flicking out to the nipple again. “All salt and sunshine, just like the ocean, I didn’t think it was possible.” She teased Kara a few more minutes with her tongue, feeling the tension building in the younger woman as her squirming increased. 

Finally, when she felt Kara quivering, her muscles twitching beneath her, her most intimate of places throbbing with need beneath her fingers, Cat struck. Her mouth engulfed the abuse nipple, and sucked,  _ hard,  _ while her hands quickly sprung into action, twisting Kara’s other nipple and pinching her clit. Kara crashed over the edge like the waves breaking against the cliff, with a loud scream and a flood of wetness coating Cat’s hand and leg. 

A smug expression crossed Cat’s face as she curled up with her exhausted lover, slowly licking the juices off her hand while Kara slipped into sleep. She followed not to long after, slipping contendly into sleep with her entire body pressed against her girlfriend’s. 

She awoke the next morning to an incessant tongue flicking at her clit, fingers scissoring inside of her her, and an orgasm rocking through her system. “That,” Cat started once her voice had returned and breath entered her lungs again. “That is always the best way to start the day.” 

“Well good,” Kara said, trailing kisses along Cat’s stomach and chest as she moved up towards her. She pressed a kiss to her lips and Cat enjoyed the lingering taste of Kara mixing with the fresh taste of herself on her lover’s lips. Screw morning breath. “Then you should be up for a day of surfing,” the younger blonde teased as she bounced off the bed.

“Kara!” Cat yelled as the woman disappeared into the bathroom.

“Don’t ‘Kara’ me, you should be nice and relaxed right now, so I’ll meet you in the kitchen for breakfast after you clean up and we can head down to the beach. Kara bounced back into the room only wearing her bikini and a bright smile, and pressed a breathless kiss to Cat’s lips again before skipping out of the room. 

Cat fell back against the bed with a groan, heat stirring within her again at the kiss Kara had given her. She sighed and pushed herself out of bed, knowing that Kara would come up again and drag her down to the beach if she lingered any longer. She smirked at herself in the mirror as she took in her flushed face and sex tousled hair. “I’m in love with an amazing, beautiful nutcase,” she sighed to herself as she got ready for the day.

 

* * *

 

“Cat, we've been practicing for days, you caught a wave, you've caught several waves, you can do this,” Kara said, trying to calm her pacing girlfriend.

“What if I can’t catch one? What if I wipe out? That might be worse… No, not catching one is worse…”

“Cat!” Kara grabbed the older woman by her shoulders and lightly shook her to snap her out of her daze. “You need to snap out of it, your going to catch a wave, and if you wipe out, you wipe out, there are other competitions and there are other waves.”

“How could you say that?” Cat snapped, “I need this competition, I need to prove to myself that I can do this, that I can be better than Lane and her bitch friends, that I can be better than I was before I wiped out.”

Kara smiled, “And that’s the Cat I know. You’ve been moping around for the past few days, and while we’ve managed to get you mostly unstuck from catching waves, you need to have your competitive drive back, your desire to win, to prove you’re the best, everything that makes you Cat Grant.”

“I was never able to beat you in a competition.”

“Yes, well, while you try to be the best, I am the best,” Kara smirked, wiggling her eyebrows. 

“You’re going to pay for that remark later.”

“Then how about this, to make this a little more interesting. You win the competition, or you beat Lois Lane, and tonight, we can do whatever you want.”

“Whatever I want?” Cat’s brow rose close to her hairline. “Even that thing that you-”

“Yes!” Kara slapped her hand over Cat’s mouth. “Yes, even that thing, just don’t say it out loud.”

“Well,” Cat said, a large, smug grin crossing her face. “That changes things. Move out of my way Zorel, I have competition to win.” The older blonde left her girlfriend on the beach with a hard, passionate kiss for luck before grabbing her board and heading out into the surf. She paddled out into the waves, diving below the crashing waves, and resurfacing to continue to the lineup.

“Decided you were finally gonna join us Kitty-Cat?” Lois baited, trying to get a rise out of the other woman.

“I figured it was time to show you ladies how real surfers catch waves,” Cat retorted. Her eyes were focused out on the horizon, taking in the movement of the water, watching, feeling for the perfect wave. The competition would last most of the day, twelve surfers, three rounds, then the quarter finals, semi finals and finally the final match up.

Several of the surfers competition were new to the professional circuit, fresh off of the juniors, but the majority of them were seasoned so Cat knew that she needed to be on her game. The buzzer for the first heat started and Lane and three of the other surfers started paddling away from the line-up. Lane took priority and dropped onto the first wave, scoring her first wave of the competition. 

Cat rolled her eyes as Lois spun her board around on its nose, and she barely paid attention to the excited jabbering of the others around her. “Should’ve know Lois would’ve gone with the helicopter trick for the first wave.” Cat heard the whispered words and turned her attention down the line to see Leslie speaking to Siobhan. “You know how she likes to show off,” Leslie continued, and Cat smirked. Lois did like to show off, it was her nature, but Cat was always willing to rise to the challenge to put her down when she got too big for her board.

The heat ended with Lois catching two more waves, and each of the other competitors catching two or three of their own. “The waves are small today,” Lois grumbled when she paddled back to the line. “It’s boring.”

“It may be boring, but it’s better than having a rough chop created by the large waves,” Cat returned. “Makes it safer for us out here for competition.”

“Someone pee in your litter box this morning Kitty,” Lois growled, sending a glare in the blonde’s direction.

Cat ignored it and paddled out into the surf when the buzzer for the next heat sounded. Siobhan was also featured in the heat and was just behind the older woman, nearly brushing against her board, but Cat paid her no mind. She was used to such tactics from Lois and wasn’t going to let one of her lackeys intimidate her. She set immediately set on a wave swelling in the distance, and easily outpaced her three rivals to catch the growing wave and drop. As soon as she was up, Cat knew that the wave wouldn’t give her the form she wanted, so she aimed towards the bottom of the wave before turning, carving back up to the left. She rode the wave out until the end, and eased back into the water to wait for her next wave. 

The surf was being erratic with waves, putting out only a few good waves, and none with a good barrel. Kelly, one the younger surfers in her heat, wiped out on her second wave and was caught in the surf underneath the water. She managed to escape and recover her board, but she looked shaken as she returned to the lineup. Watching it reminded Cat of her own wipeout and she felt phantom pain in her knee and ribs, prompting the woman to rub at the prominent scar on her leg. 

The competition continued and the heats and rounds continued with new waves and surfers with grim determination to win. Kelly bowed out in the second round after realizing she was more injured than she originally thought. Leslie had two bad waves in the third round and didn’t make it to the quarterfinals, while Siobhan lasted all the way to the semi-finals before being counted out. “Looks like it’s just you and me Kitty,” Lois smirked, floating next to Cat as they waited for the signal for the start of the final round. 

“Didn’t you think this was going to be how it worked out in the end?” Cat retorted, not looking at the other woman.

“I didn’t think you’d make it on a wave.”

Cat surprised both of them by letting out a light laugh. “Truthfully neither did I, but Kara’s been helping me these past few days.”

“Kara… Kara Zorel?!”

The blonde woman hummed and sent Lois a mischievous grin. “You asked where she’s disappeared too, well she can easily be found in my bed Lane, though only to be seen and enjoyed by me.”

“Damn Grant,” Lois murmured, but Cat wasn’t paying attention to her. The buzzer had sounded and she was focused on the movement of the water. She started paddling out, anticipating the wave she could feel forming on the flat surface. Kara was probably the one who was better at feeling the waves that were forming in the water and heading towards them before anyone else could start paddling. Cat hoped that just this once she had managed to pick up some of Kara’s skills of predicting the waves. 

She could see it forming, a massive wave, bigger than anything else that had formed that day, bigger than the wave that wiped her out over a year ago. Firming her resolve, Cat turned the board and dropped down on the wave. She carved over to the left as the barrel started to form and shot into the tube, the water swirling around her. 

This, this was what she’s missed about surfing, being so totally immersed in a wave to have it completely surround her, riding in the middle of the tube, flying. Everything grew quiet despite the roaring, surging of the water, and she lost herself in the light at the end of the barrel, a burst of sunlight shining through the blues and greens around her, glittering through the water. It was almost magical the way the world seemed to disappear, it was just her and the wave, and at that moment, she knew. She knew that it didn’t matter if she won or lost the competition, she did what she set out to do, she defeated her fears, she caught a wave, everything else didn’t matter. 

Emerging out of the end of the tube, Cat finished riding the end of the wave. She glanced over to where Lois was perched on her board with a sour expression on her face looking like someone had pissed in her Cheerios. While she felt that it didn’t matter if she won or lost, Cat couldn’t wait to rub it in her face when she won.

 

* * *

 

Cat breathed in the salty air as she sat on her board, her legs lazily swishing in the water on either side. It felt nice, to finally be able to relax on the water without the lingering fear of being knocked against rocks underneath harsh, churning waves. “So you seem to be feeling better,” Kara commented as she paddled up next to the older woman. “You’re back out on the water, so you’ve wound down from the competition.”

“I think so, I can finally breathe again, it’s nice,” Cat said, turning her attention to her girlfriend. 

“Good, I’m proud of you Cat.”

“I’m proud of me too. Part of what was scaring me was the whole idea of competing again, but I got through it and I conquered my fears for now, until the next one probably.”

“And you’re going to do great at the next one as well,” Kara told her.

Cat hummed and took in the sunset burning against the water, bathing everything in a golden light. “I believe we had a little wager,” she said after a few moments. “That you would let me do anything I wanted to you tonight…”

“Did I say that?”

“Yes, I distinctly remember you saying that.” Cat gave her girlfriend a lecherous grin that caused the younger woman to gulp. 

“We-well, then I think you better catch me first.” Before she finished speaking, Kara was already paddling away, towards a wave that was building on the horizon.

“Kara!”

“Sorry Cat, if you want to catch me, you’ll have to catch the wave!”

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> As an aside, I dislike one shots, writing them anyway, but I love these contests, so I put up with it.


End file.
